The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: Variety

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Jane Austen fans, beware.

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" will either make you laugh or burn the book like the characters do the living dead.

Well known for its initial sentence, the novel is instantly changed from the beginning:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

Seth Grahame-Smith does a clever job of keeping the original story intact while lacing in scenes of stupid but fast-paced zombies, mayhem and gore.

I'm in an Austen class this semester (Yes, there is such a class), and I've come to admire her gray areas. Grahame-Smith removes some of the subtleties, changes a few characters but leaves the most famous lines alone.

I admire that Elizabeth is a fierce warrior who trained under a master in China, making her completely efficient with her throwing stars and Katana sword. However, it's a bit much when she kills a ninja, rips the heart out of his chest and takes a bite out of it.

And instead of falling in love with Darcy because of Pemberley, Elizabeth tells Jane she first started falling for him when she saw the "way his trousers clung to those most English parts." Austen would come back as a member of the living dead herself just to avenge the sexual innuendo put in her novel. That's a no-no in the Austen world.

But the adaptation does have its redeeming qualities. The engagement scenes between Darcy and Elizabeth remain relatively untouched, which reminds Austen readers why we love it and introduces newbies to the classic. Grahame-Smith even gives us an "aw" moment when Elizabeth learns that "of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous."

At least we know Grahame-Smith doesn't take himself too seriously. He lists a "reader's discussion guide" at the end: Is Mr. Collins merely too fat and stupid to notice his wife's gradual transformation into a zombie? Does Mrs. Bennett have a single redeeming quality? Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?

His adaptation hovers between the ridiculous and ridiculously well-weaved-in scenes. It begins nearly the same, ends nearly the same and gets across the same commentary on pride and prejudice, so if this pulls in a few guys or a few people with short attention spans, I'd say it's a good way to introduce them to the world of Austen.

I wouldn't be surprised if Grahame-Smith did this just to play off the zombie craze creeping into pop culture.

Like most spinoffs, it's cashing in on the Austen name, but it also seems to be a strange tribute that takes her style, dialogue and main characters seriously. If anything, it shows the incredible power and timelessness of the original.

- Carolyn Crist is the editor-in-chief of The Red & Black.

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